This invention provides seating apparatus readily custom fitted to a person's body, and provides a method of manufacturing such seating apparatus.
The invention is useful in a variety of seating devices, including chairs and seats of all kind--such as seating furniture, wheelchairs, and the driver--s seat in a car or other vehicle--as well as accessory seat supports and backrests.
The individual custom fitting of seating structures according to the invention provides anatomical support for a seated person, including for example the lumbosacral region. The seating structures of the invention can also provide custom fitted buttock support.
The invention thus provides comfortable, restful, and orthopedically supportive seating. It is particularly useful for persons with orthopedic difficulties and discomfort, as well as for persons subject to prolonged sitting such as truck and bus drivers, among others.
The manufacturing method according to the invention can be practiced quickly to provide a custom fitted seating structure of the above character that is essentially permanent and yet that can be readily replaced or refitted.
Custom fitted orthoses are known that attach to a person's body, typically by way of straps and belts, and hence are worn like a corset garment. Examples are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,572,167 and 4,716,892, and in the art cited in those patents, and include the products of numerous companies including those of Brunswick Medical Corporation of Brookline, Mass., U.S.A.
It also known to provide seating devices, for example in automobiles, that are adjustable to provide a limited range of dorsal support configurations.
It is an object of this invention to provide anatomically fitted support, such as was heretofore available only in orthoses, in seating devices.
More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide seating devices anatomically custom fitted to the person to be seated. It is also an object that such custom fitted seating devices be suited for diverse applications, including accessory supports for seating structures and as an integral part of seating structures.
Other objects of the invention are to provide such custom fitted orthodic seating devices that are relatively low in cost, that are substantially permanent yet suited for ready refitting and changing, and that can be manufactured readily.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process for the manufacture of seating devices having the above anatomical custom fitting.
Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.